1877 Emily Joyner House

Emily Joyner, a Civil War widow, purchased this house and lot in 1877 for $125. The original lot was along Jerger Street, about the current location of a cooking shed on the Museum’s grounds. The house itself is an adaptive re-use structure: Ms. Joyner had two slave or servant quarters loaded on logs, and moved to her lot, where the small hallway was built to join the two quarters together.

When the Ewart family purchased the rest of the block in 1893, Emily Joyner refused their initial offer. She finally sold to Ewart in 1895 for the greatly inflated price of $1000. The Ewart family then used this house for the maid’s quarters, and moved the house to its current location at the corner of Jerger and Crawford. Joyner used the proceeds from the sale to build a larger, nicer house at the corner of Dawson and Washington Streets.

The property was purchased by the Flowers family in 1909, and they moved their children’s nanny Matilda King Calloway into the little house. Miss Calloway lived in the cottage until her death in 1948, after which it was used as a guest cottage by the Roberts family.

The doors of the 1896 O.C. Ewart Bowling Alley, on the property of the Museum of History, will open to the public for a night of fun and friendly competition on Thursday, August 10, 2017. Two teams of four adults (ages 21+) will have the opportunity to play two full games of ten-pin bowling in the historic alley.

Due to the limited space for this event, only two teams will be able to bowl but each participant may bring along a “plus one” to observe the fun.

Registration:

Registration is open to all adults (ages 21+)and participants are encouraged to have their team of four adults secured prior to signing up. The fee is $25 per person and is due when you register. To sign-up your team, please contact Ephraim at ephraim@thomascountyhistory.org.